Product Library / Water Protection & Plumbing

Flume 2 Smart Home Water Monitor

Compiled by SmartHomeWorkflow Research · Flume · Water Protection & Plumbing · ~$269 (price at time of research (2026-08-26). $269 is the figure on the button a buyer clicks: Flume's own product page reads 'Add to Cart - $269'. The same page's hidden product listing still says $249, and that listing looks unmaintained (an old product image, a star rating that disagrees with the one the page shows), so we publish the live button's figure and put the contradiction in the catch, where a buyer will meet it. This field read $149 until 2026-08-26, describing a '$149 plus $49.99 a year' option that no longer appears on Flume's page, so the published figure had been low by $120.)

Compatibility

Protocols: WIFI · PROPRIETARY-RF-915MHZ^[1]

What it can do^[2][5][6]

• Alexa: Query-only. Flume states the Alexa skill is 'response only' and cannot push leak or other notifications.
• Home Assistant: Full trigger set — leak detected, high flow, bridge disconnected and low battery are all exposed as binary sensors, polled from Flume's cloud every five minutes.

Deliberately empty actions: this device measures and reports, it does not actuate. That is the defining property of this subcategory — a whole-home monitor with no integrated valve — and it is why a leak alert here ends in a notification rather than in the water being shut off.

Listed capabilities are what we could establish from vendor documentation. An ability missing here is unestablished — not necessarily absent.

Subscription reality^[3][11]

✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.

Vendor account required: Yes — you must create a vendor account to use it.^[13]

The paid tier is gone, and Flume says so in its own words: 'Flume no longer has a subscription or any recurring fees.' The same article adds that Flume Insight, the $49.99-a-year plan this record used to describe, was cancelled for direct customers by Flume itself, and Flume's fees article agrees: customers who buy direct get no monthly fees and full access to the core features, leak detection included. Two caveats survive, both stated by Flume and neither about buying the device yourself. Certain insurance programmes do carry a yearly fee, so a unit that arrived through an insurer may cost something this record does not describe. And for a device that came through a utility or insurer programme, 'features and fees may vary': same hardware, different terms depending on who gave it to you. This record listed a paid tier until 2026-08-26; that tier no longer exists.

Maintenance reality^[1]

• Batteries: 4 Lithium Metal AA batteries (sensor only; the Bridge is mains-powered)
• Works without the internet: No — the core function depends on the vendor's servers, so an outage takes it with them.^[12]
• Two pieces, and both matter for placement. The sensor straps to the outside of your existing water meter, with no plumbing work, no pipe cutting and no shutoff, and reads the meter's magnetic field; Flume claims self-installation in under ten minutes and compatibility with 95% of homes, with a meter checker on its site. It is rated for two-foot immersion (meter pits flood), works outdoors, and measures 2.45 x 3.4 x 5.7 inches. The bridge plugs into an indoor outlet, measures 1.9 x 4.4 x 2.3 inches, joins 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and works from 32 °F to 158 °F. The sensor talks to the bridge by radio with a stated reach of up to 1,000 feet, which is why a meter at the street is usually still workable. It measures to a hundredth of a gallon, with real-time flow, an indoor-versus-outdoor split, and per-fixture attribution (toilets, showers, dishwashers, softeners, sprinklers). Battery life is not published and is left blank rather than estimated. Beyond the five main platforms, Flume documents connections to Rain Bird and Orbit B-hyve irrigation controllers, a YoLink shutoff valve, and access for your own software; it states outright that it does not work with Rachio.
• Security updates: No security-update support date is on record for this model yet. We haven't yet checked whether Flume publishes one, so this is a gap in our research — not a statement about the manufacturer.

The catch

It watches the water and tells you; it cannot stop it. There is no valve, so a burst pipe at 3am produces an alert, not an intervention. Pair it with a shutoff valve (Flume documents a YoLink one) if stopping the water matters. The bigger surprise is where the alerts can and cannot go: Flume says its Alexa skill is 'response only', so Alexa can be asked about usage but cannot announce a leak, and Flume states outright that it does not work with Apple HomeKit or SmartThings 'at this time'. Home Assistant is the only platform that receives leak, high-flow and bridge-offline signals as usable triggers. Everything runs through Flume's cloud, so there is no local mode and no offline alerting. Installation is easy because nothing is plumbed, but it depends on your meter: use Flume's compatibility checker before buying rather than after. On price, one subtlety and one warning. Flume has retired its subscription, so nothing is paywalled if you buy direct, but a unit given away by a utility or insurer may arrive with different features and fees. And check the total before you pay, because Flume's page contradicts itself: the button says $269 and the hidden listing on the same page still says $249. We publish $269, the number on the button you click; if you are quoted $249 anywhere, that figure came from Flume too.

Who it's for

A fit for a household that wants to see and understand its water — real-time flow, per-fixture attribution, indoor versus outdoor split — and to be warned about leaks, without touching plumbing or hiring anyone. Renters can install it if they have access to the meter, and it suits homes where the meter sits in a pit at the street, since the sensor is IP67 and reaches the Bridge over 915 MHz. It fits Home Assistant households especially well, because that is the one platform that can act on a leak signal. Look elsewhere if you need the water actually shut off, if you want Apple Home or SmartThings, if you need alerts that work without internet, or if your meter is one of the incompatible minority — check Flume's meter tool first. Alexa and Google users should know they get a voice assistant that can answer questions about water but not raise the alarm. Nothing about this device is subscription-gated for a direct purchase; a Flume account, however, is not optional — Flume states you must create one to use the product.

Sources & method

Numbered sources below back the facts marked with the matching number above. This is a research profile: compiled from manufacturer documentation, certification registries, and published testing — we state facts, not verdicts, and we have not physically tested this unit. How we work →

Compatibility and lifecycle information reflects the last-verified date above and can change without notice (firmware updates, cloud-service changes, discontinuations). It is provided as-is, for information — verify with the manufacturer before purchasing. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full terms: Terms of Service.

Check it against YOUR setup →